Two weeks ago we looked at a variety of windows from the outside.

Here are views from some views from the inside of various lodgings that we particularly enjoyed.

The Dashiell Hammett Room at Union Square Hotel, San Francisco

Budapest Apartment Window with view of St. Stephen's Square

View of Chicago River and lake from Westin Hotel

View from Le Case Hotel, Le Marche region, Italy

Le Torricelle View, Le Marche region, Italy

Steinerhof Pension, Salzburg

Rome hotel street view from room

View from Adobe Grande Villas, Sedona

East Winds apartment view, St. Lucia

Night view from Warwick Hotel, NYC

These photos are this week’s contribution to Travel Photo Thursday.  You can see travel photos from around the world by going to Budget Traveler’s Sandbox. Next week some windows (and maybe some doors) from Venice, Italy.

The Giveaway prize today goes to one person who comments, subscribes, tweets or mentions us on Google+. It is a copy of Running Away To Home, Jennifer Wilson’s account of her family’s return to her ancestral village in Croatia. I reviewed Running Away to Home here. (You can comment on this post or on an earlier post. Just do it before Friday 3:00 a.m. MST. If you already subscribe by e-mail and want an extra entry as a subscriber, be sure to tell me that in the comments. See complete rules here.)

What is the best view you have ever had from a hotel room?  And by the way, I have not yet posted the BEST view I had from a hotel room. That would have been in Greece, hanging right out over the water on the west coast of the Peloponnese, or perhaps in Switzerland looking across Lake Lucerne, or maybe that one that hung on the cliff in Santorini. Oh dear!! I’ll never decide. Are you more decisive than I am??

Disclaimers: Running Away To Home was provided by the publisher for review. All these photos are my property, and I will appreciate your respect for my copyright.

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Trevi Fountain

Destination: Italy

Movie: Three Coins in a Fountain (1954) Stars include Jean Peters, Dorothy McGuire, Maggie MacNamara, Clifton Webb, Rossano Brazzi and Louis Jourdan

If you want a look at a foreign culture, the original Three Coins in a Fountain movie will do it for you. Yes, there is a lot about Italian culture, but you also see another way of life that will be foreign to you–the culture of 1950′s America when women were girls, men wore suit jackets even at home, and the object of life was to get married.

P. della Republica, Naiad Fountain

When you see a movie for the 2nd time more than fifty years later (OUCH!) reality tinkers with your memory.  This ultimate travel movie was filmed just one year after the debut of Cinemascope with stereophonic sound, which was really amazing stuff back then. ( The trailer sells the film technique instead of the film). The use of Cinemascope presents panoramic shots of Rome, Venice and the Dolomite Mountains countryside that could  serve as a marketing tool for the Italian Tourism agency now as well as then.

For instance, the introductory sequence consists of a four-minute tour of Rome with Frank Sinatra singing the Oscar-winning Sammy song, Three Coins in a Fountain in the background, more like a low-key music video than any movie you’ll see today.

Crowds at Trevi Fountain

I only wish that when we visited Rome, the fountains and parks had been so empty. In those lovely scene-setting scenes around Rome, there are almost NO people!

We had to wait eons to get close to the Fountain of Trevi so we could toss our coins.

And I wouldn’t mind an exchange rate that allowed me to live in a villa, either! But, this is fantasy Rome, not the one we walked through.

One lengthy segment takes place in Venice. Plotwise there is no concrete reason  for the actors to be in Venice–and in fact, I suspect the actors were in a studio somewhere. All of their swooping-over-Venice-in-a-plane and floating-down-the-canal scenes are courtesy of rear projections. There is no reason to believe they came within 175 kilometers of the city of canals.

Approaching Rialto Bridge

Rear projection can be annoying to present-day audiences who are used to seeing live action shots, but rise above your annoyance, and you’ll get an excellent visit to Rome and Venice floating by in the background. Rural mountain scenery featured in one sequence, places actors in a more realistic outdoor dining scene in front of a real scene in the Dolomites whose beauty takes you breath away.

When I wasn’t being annoyed by rear projection in car travel shots, I found myself surprisingly aware of camera angles and editing in interior scenes. I’m no expert, so those details usually go right over my head, but when techniques have changed so radically, they become quite obvious. The director shot nearly all the interior scenes proscenium style–as though the camera has been plopped down in front of a stage. The actors face front, the camera stays static, there are no cuts from one person to another.

The benefit is you get a huge hunk of background to help set the scene, and the acting carries the scene rather than random edits providing the drama. The downside is that few of us carry on conversations facing a “fourth wall” instead of each other.

I became so aware of this, that I was amazed when one scene with Clifton Webb and Louis Jordan played more like the movies we are used to.  As in shooting over the back of one character as the other one talked. or having actors move away and toward the camera rather than just parallel to the “fourth wall”.

Someone with more technical knowledge of movie making than I have may drop in to explain the constant use of rear projection and the lack of camera interaction with characters in Cinemascope.

Piazza Navona, Four Rivers Fountain

But despite the technical oddities, the acting was excellent, the three women were interesting and pretty, Jourdan and Brazzi were plain gorgeous, and Clifton Webb was quirky and charming. I found that the film still packs a bit of emotional wallop and as the ultimate travel movie definitely makes me want to return to Rome “presto!”

I watched the restored DVD version of the movie, rented from Netflix. The commentary told me a lot about the actors and production people, but not about the making of the film, unfortunately. Photos here all belong to Ken and me and we would appreciate your asking permission if you choose to use. I want to thank Jane Boursaw, of Reel Life With Jane. Her comment that a vastly inferior girls in a foreign place movie this summer reminded her of movies like 3 Coins in a Fountain. Jane is right about most things cinematic, but in this case, the resemblance is superficial at most. Appreciate the nudge, though.

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Ken in Rome

Has it been five years since we were in Italy? Unbelievable! But Italy stays with you once you have traveled there.

Here’s another of my round-up posts (read: she’s traveling and not blogging every day).

Italian scene in Le Marche

Author Interview with Susan Van Allen who wrote 100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go (Obviously ALL of Italy).

I learned more about some destinations in Italy that I had not heard of, and much about the Venus/Mary connections. But most important, I learned that Italian guys don’t pinch so much any more. (So it wasn’t just because I was getting old!) And of course Susan gave us some great tips on books about Italy.

Irreverent Curiosity by David Farley (Calcata) and a bonus–interview with David in which he recommends his own favorite Italy books.

In Irreverent Curiosity, Farley goes on a quest for a very unusual relic. I said: If this book were only about one of the thousands of bits and pieces of holy personages that populate Catholic churches (bones, skin, organs), particularly in Italy, I would lose interest fast.  But cleverly, Farley mixes religious history with present day culture, and even the clash of various national cultures together with a crystal clear picture of an idyllic medieval village in Italy.

Naples ’44 by Norman Lewis, (Naples) one of my very favorite travel writers.

Before reading this book, I had NO IDEA how the people of Naples suffered during World War II, and how tragi-comic the miscommunications between troops could be. I wrote:

Sometimes I thought of Naples ’44 as the true forerunner of Joseph Heller’s Catch 22 or M.A.S.H, except that Naples ’44 is not fiction.  Lewis lived through this. The people of Naples lived through it, amazingly.

Italy Out of Hand: A Capricious Tour (Most of Italy) by Barbara Hodgson is a beautiful book, sensuous to hold, but so much more. Okay, the most fascinating thing? Why the Duke’s portrait was always painted in profile. In May of 2009 I kicked off a whole week in Italy with this book, (which the dog liked too, but you’ll have to read about that on the original post) and I said:

Author Barbara Hodgson dwells on details–some serious, some quite mad–just like the country.  Her attention to detail is such that even the books typeface brings up a little story about a long-forgotten Italian.

St. Peter's Basilica, Rome

Michelangelo (Rome and Florence)–This is a very short piece that covers two books and a video and my sad travel tale. Speaking of Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling, I said:

The book’s 384 pages may have more details about, say, the mixing of colors, than some readers can tolerate, but I loved every fussy, gossipy moment of it.

Italian Street Scene

A Season with Verona , Italian Neighbors and Italian Education(Verona)  by Tim Parks.

Before I went to Italy, I was happy to find these books by Tim Parks about life in present day Italy.

 Adding books like these to my travel library lifts the curtain that separates cultures, and helps me understand the real world beyond the familiar tourist grounds of hotels and restaurants and museums.

Venice Gondola Traffic Jam

Acqua Alta and other mysteries (Venice)  by Donna Leon. When I wrote that paean to Donna Leon in 2009, she had written 16 mysteries. Now she has produced 4 more plus Brunetti’s Cookbook and several other unrelated books. Her books taught me a lot about present day Venice.

Leon (and Brunetti) also led me to hidden treasures of Venice, and explained the little cultural secrets that sometimes elude a tourist. I went on a Comissario Brunetti alert, recognizing street and plaza names and remembering the crime that took place in a particular canal.

Of course, I have written other things about Italy, books and movies and travel experiences, but these are the best of the books, I believe. A little something from Rome, Florence, Naples, Venice,Verona and the rest of Italy for you to browse on while I am elsewhere.

What’s your latest recommendation for movies and books from Italy?

Instead of overloading you with links to Amazon in this post, I’m hoping if you are interested in a particular book, you’ll go to the article and click on the title OR you can go to that Amazon search box on the far right and find anything you want. It helps pay the rent on my blog site. Thanks!

You’ll find disclaimers on each blog post, but the pictures here belong to me, with the exception of the book covers and the picture of Naples, which is form Flickr with Creative Commons license.

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St. Peter's Basilica, Rome

I have Longitude books to thank for this discovery, and you can browse the whole collection of these mysteries at their site. If you don’t already get their newsletter, I highly recommend it for outstanding travel books.

Aurelio Zen mysteries by Michael Dibdin  air on PBS, Sunday evenings July 17-31.

• Tour Sardinia with Vendetta.
• Tour Rome with Cabal.
• Tour Venice  (correction) Perugia with Ratking.

The brooding Middelmarch (BBC) actor, Rufus Sewell, plays the detective. (You may have seen him in the TV version of Pillars of the Earth.)

Rialto Bridge, Venice

These pictures are my property. If you wish to use them, please inquire at vmb@atravelerslibrary.com

Before we went to Italy I read nearly all of the Donna Leon mysteries set in Venice, and I read a couple of a series about an art appraiser by Ian Pears,  which I did not like as much, but you may like those, too. Have you read any of the Aurelio Zen mysteries? I have not, but am really looking forward to this series on Public Broadcasting.

A reader has corrected the erroneous destination I listed  for Ratking. Which calls into question my use of the Venice picture. Dibdin, did however, write a book set in Venice–Dead Lagoon,and . My apologies to everyone for getting that wrong. It was incorrect in some promotional materials and I did not check it. Shame on me.

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The Last Judgment

Destination: Rome, Italy

Book: The Last Judgment: Michelangelo and the Death of the Renaissance by James A. Connor (NEW Paperback Edition August, 2010 from Palgrave MacMillan)

Like Michelangelo and The Pope’s Ceiling by Ross King, this book concentrates on one major work of the maestro. Unlike King’s book, The Last Judgment by James A. (Jim) Connor delves more deeply into the religious philosophy of Michelangelo and his time than into the personal life of the painter.

A former Jesuit priest who is now a professor of religion, Connor has written previous books about Kepler and about Galileo that emphasize the theology of the day and its impact on these famous men.

For the book on Michelangelo, he was inspired by the fresco of The Last Judgment on the wall above the altar in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel in Rome. Painted after the famous ceiling of the chapel, the Last Judgment, in Connor’s view, reflects Michelangelo’s growing awareness of his own mortality and concerns about his own sins. He portrays Michelangelo as a deeply religious man, influenced by the conservative reformer Savonarola, by the ungodliness of many of the Popes who commissioned work by Michelangelo, and by the Catholic Reformation that was gaining traction in the mid 15th century.

While the discussion of theology sometimes went over my head, Connor does present the ideas of the day through real people, making it more interesting than a pure theological discussion. I  enjoyed being introduced to many of the painter’s close friends–and enemies–through references to biographies written shortly after he died, letters and transcripts of conversations.

Sistine Chapel

As for the subtitle of the book, it really deals more with the Catholic Reformation than with the “death of the Renaissance” in my understanding of that term. Connor does present some arguments based in the stylistic changes apparent  between the painting of the Sistine Chapel ceiling and the Last Judgment.

Connor makes much of the fact that Christ is centered in the picture with major Christian characters revolving around him, rather than the way that the Renaissance tended to picture the hierarchy of God- Christ and Mary-the Apostles and Saints-good people-bad people. The author believes that this arrangement in the Last Judgment reflects Michelangelo’s knowledge of Copernicus and an early portrayal of the earth revolving around the sun.

Apparently that choice was not noticed, or at least did not raise the controversy that erupted over all of the figures, including Christ, being naked. Later Popes had drapes of clothing applied, totally missing Michelangelo’s point that on judgment day, clothing was no longer needed and the nudity presented a way to differentiate between the substantive body of a living being and the soul of the dead.

The book has a tendency to skip around in time, so I found myself flipping back to get oriented. The muddy black and white pictures in the book do not allow the reader to grasp the differences in overall color choices and the chaos of this painting as compared to the Ceiling.  I guess you just have to buy a ticket to Rome. But wait! The Internet to the rescue. See many very good images at Italian Renaissance Art.

I have complained here before about missing the Sistine Chapel on our trip to Rome. Now when I DO get there, I certainly will be more inclined to pay attention to the Last Judgment fresco, as well as the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  I like to read about the history of a piece of art. Do you?  Are books about art part of your travel library?

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My Melange Robin Locker fell in love with Italy, and then cheated on her first love by also falling in love with France. She brings the culture of Europe back to America in her blog, My Melange.As the title indicates, she covers a little of this and a little of that. She also will help you organize your own trip to Italy or France.

Angela K. Nickerson calls her blog “Just Go: books, travel and the delight of going” Renamed Gypsy’s Guide. She has written a book on Michelangelo’s Rome, so her blog focuses on Italy. She spotlights books, art works and other cultural attractions of Italy. Nickerson also leads tours to Rome, explained at Michelangelo in Italy. With her truly beautiful site, Nickerson makes it almost impossible not to travel to Italy.

Laura Byrne Paquet also offers up linked web sites.  Facing the Street advises on how to make the most of travel with local experiences, and La Vida Local (Spanglish for the local life) follows up with specific advice about apartment and other long-term arrangements. Facing the Street gives me interesting information every time I drop by, and I know I can count on it, because Paquet is a many-times book author and frequently published articles writer. She knows how to find information and make sure it is correct. Viva!

Have you checked out these web sites and found something of value?  Please leave them a comment and tell them you came from A Traveler’s Library.  Thanks.

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Four Rivers Fountain, Piazza Navona, Rome

Destination: Rome

Movie: Angels and Demons

Well, here we are at the end of Italy week.  I went to the long-awaited movie of Angels and Demons around noon today. I would say it was the equivalent of dining on one of those fancy bakery cakes decorated with lard and sugar icing and fresh violets.  Absolutely beautiful, but no substance.

I think that the movie Angels and Demons reflected and Demons the book perfectly.  The book was shallow and error-prone.  Ron Howard, director of the movie, said in an interview that they stripped away the non-essential things. So what do you have when you take something that is insubstantial to begin with, and strip things away? Certainly not much brain food.

I have to hand it to the model-makers, set designers, set decorators, etc.  I have been to Bernini’s Piazza San Pietro (St. Peter’s Square) at the Vatican, I had been in the tombs below the Vatican, and although I unfortunately had never been in the Sistine Chapel it is familiar from pictures. The accuracy of their portrayal in this movie should win those guys an Oscar or two.  I would have sworn the scenes in Saint Peter’s Basilica and other parts of the Vatican were really in those places. However, since the Vatican would not allow the film crew inside Vatican property, it was all the work of clever designers.  Note, however, that when the camera scans the Sistine Chapel, it moves quickly, not focusing enough for you to study the art work and statuary, and the scenes there are brief. Very clever work, indeed.

(Spoiler alert) And somebody gets loads of credit for that gorgeous, turbulent sky when the anti-matter explodes. I was waiting for Michaelangelo’s outstretched fingers of God and Adam to appear.

The dialogue, on the other hand can only be called lame.  What kind of exposition is it when a Professor of Humanities is having to tell a woman with a PhD in Physics about how Galileo thought that the earth revolved around the sun, and therefore the church excommunicated him? The movie seems to rely more on dramatic music and sound effects than dialogue to move the plot along.

When I read Angels and DemonsAngels & Demons (Robert Langdon) [Mass Market Paperback], I thought the book  was a fun, quick, read, but superficial.  The movie is the same, but its saving grace is the gorgeous views of Rome, both aerial views and close up inside famous piazzas and churches–enough to satisfy any afficiando of Italy. And perhaps to lure some travelers to visit the Eternal City. Given that fact, I would certainly not want my negative remarks to deter you from seeing the movie.

If you want to check on the movie’s accuracy in presenting familiar sites in Rome, or if you just love the way the movie looks and want to know how to get there yourself—read Angela Nickerson’s FREE e-book, Rome’s Angels and Demons. I have, and it is a wonderful guide. When you go to her site to get the book, you can enter a contest, too.

I would appreciate it, if when you visit Angela’s site, you tell her that you came from A Traveler’s Library. Thanks, and this concludes our Italy week, which started with a rather eccentric book and ended with a rather eccentric movie.  Would you like a week devoted to another country? Tell me which one and we’ll be off to the races.

Photograph by Vera Marie Badertscher. All rights reserved. Some links here take you to Amazon, in case you would like to shop there. It does not cost you any more when you buy through these links, but it benefits A Traveler’s Library. Thanks.

Enjoy this review of Angels and Demons? Tell others by clicking on a button below to share on a social bookmarking site.

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Roman Forum evening shadows

Destination: Rome

Books: The Masters of Rome Series by Collen McCullough

It seems to me that is essential to have some understanding of ancient Rome if you are going to travel to today’s Rome. All those piles of rock and bits of arches in the forum, with the magnificent hulk of the Coliseum watching over it all look a lot less confusing if you know something about the daily life of the Romans at the pinnacle of the Roman Empire.

I imagine that I see togaed figures reclining on benches in the baths, or scurrying around from shop to shop trying to strike a good bargain so they can afford all those splendid mosaics in the courtyard of the summer place down at Herculaeum.

Colleen McCullough’s book are just the time ticket you need to get a look at Roman life among the wealthy, and a few hints about the life of other people in the Roman Empire also.  Like every period of history, when I imagine myself in a far distant time, I pick a good stratum of society. Wouldn’t you love to have lived in Renaissance Italy? Well, as a noble, or at least high merchant class, not as a peasant. With my love of Greece, I daydream about living in Athens in the 5th century B.C. However, not as a slave, of course. Although some scholars claim that all women were treated pretty much as slaves, others say the mothers and managers of households were revered.  And in the Roman Empire, I am the wife of a Senator (at least–if not a Caesar.) And as in Greece, the female role of courtesan sounds pretty cushy.

Back to the point. McCullough wrote seven books based on life in Rome.  The First Man in Rome started the series, and while I enjoyed it, I found it had almost too much detail. There are Roman experts who quibble with her history, although for a novelist, she did a mighty fine pile of research, in my opinion.

So dramatic was ancient Rome that many fiction books exist based on the real history. A web page devoted to such books,  Fictional Rome, contains a page on Colleen McCullough. If you love Rome, or love ancient history, you’ll be trapped and find it difficult to emerge.  Try to get out by tomorrow when we talk about the movie Angels and Demons, which looks at ecclesiastical Rome rather than ancient Rome, but provides a heck of a travelogue along the way.

————–

Photograph by VMB, all rights reserved.

We have  spent this week  at A Traveler’s Library focused on Italy. Do you like several days of focus on one country? Or would you rather mix things up and have a different destination each day? Let me know, because I’m planning a celebration of the opening of the Greek’s New Acropolis Museum in June. One day or several?

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Book: Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling by Ross King

A Journey into Michelangelo’s Rome by Angela K. Nickerson

Number one on my Italian travel agenda: Rome. Number one in Rome: The Sistine Chapel.

After a lifetime of seeing pictures of those outstretched index fingers, I wanted to see the rest. Not a bad painting for a guy who thought he was a sculptor.What a delight to find a book that unveils all the religious, political and artistic mechanics behind one of the world’s greatest masterpieces. Michelangelo, to put it mildly, was a complex human being, and the book, Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling captures the complexity of this genius along with the age in which he lived.  The book’s 384 pages may have more details about, say, the mixing of colors, than some readers can tolerate, but I loved every fussy, gossipy moment of it. I went to Rome fully prepared to see the Sistine Chapel with an educated eye, thanks to this addition to my travel library. And on the morning I had scheduled to go to the Vatican, I fell ill. Oh well, there is always next time. I hope.

And next time, I will expand beyond the Pope’s ceiling by reading A. K. Nickerson’s A Journey into  Michaelangelo’s Rome (2008), which was published after my last trip to Italy. See her video on You Tube.

Have you seen the Ceiling? What impressions did you carry away?

And if you want to share your love of Michelangelo and Italy, click a share button below.

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